You Know It's a Spectacular Night...

You know it's a spectacular night when three of your visitors end up in the pond. One guy somehow walked into the pond in some undefined fashion and lost a shoe (sacrifice to the mud gods?). In an even crazier episode, two girls walking the path to our fundraiser decided that they didn't want to walk back to our visitors' center to use the restroom. They jumped over a small split-rail fence in order to answer the call of nature (okay, they needed to micturate) and fell into the pond. They were soaked up to their waists, no word on whether or not they pissed their pants, but one cannot spell "pond" without "P".

Other than that, it was a low-key night, though someone did report that a raccoon had poked its head out of a sewer grate- uh, lady, they live down there, and they're more unhappy with you being around than you are with them. They do appreciate the spilled kettle corn and dropped candy apples by the concession stand, though.

October is only half over and I'm already feeling a bit of burnout. There are some things which make it all worthwhile, though- a very sweet eight year-old girl who attended the fundraiser with her mom stopped by my desk to write a thank-you note to our education staff for running a Spring after school program that she had attended. Everybody was touched by this lovely gesture, and my co-worker Peter hung it up on the wall.

I'll make it through the month- the little thoughtful gestures outweigh the occasional dumbassitude, and I have to admit that 95% of our visitors are great.